My tutor has been teaching me about the word 搞 (gao3). It is a lot like the English word “get,” which is, in fact, one of its definitions. It is also another “to do” type of word, like the Chinese 做 (zuo4), which is very common. Other “to do” words are:

❶ This phrase was confusing to me. Literally, it seems to mean “not a few,” but my Chinese tutor says it means “a few, not very many.” She said this was also confusing to her when she learned English, but it is a phrase that has to do with perspective rather than actual counting. Another way of thinking about it is “there are not just one or two, but there are some or several.”

❷ Both 搞丟了 (gao3 diu1 le.) and 搞掉了 (gao3 diao4 le.) mean lost, even though 丟 (diu1) is translated “to throw, to lose, to lay aside” and 掉 (diao4) can mean “to turn, to fall, to drop, to lose” plus a few more things. The 了 (le.) on the end of each word is because the state of being lost is complete (at least in the moment it is spoken of).

❸ This grammatical structure can be used in fun ways. For instance:

我有多愛妳,你是不會知道的。 How much I love you , you wouldn’t know .

我有多喜歡吃巧克力,,你是不會知道的。 How much I love to eat chocolate , you would’t know .

The 是不會 (shi4 bu2 hui4) is a bit hard for me to get my mind around, with its literal meaning of “to be + not + will.” It helps me to think of the “not + will” as the English contraction “won’t,” then the phrase is more easily remembered as a version of “won’t be” or “wouldn’t.”